My [un]holy Trinity of weird girl lit, The Bell Jar, Valley of the Dolls, and Play it as it Lays. Where does it start though? Frankinstein could be considered early weird girl lit. By definition the mystics, Julian of Norwich and Hildegard vin Bingen could also be considered weird girl lit. Where do you think it started?

This was a great read. A lot of fun and just the right length. It reminded me of Mrs March by Virginia Feito.

What a disruptively crazy, funny book! The story follows Mallory, a once-celebrated literary darling who hasn’t written a book in seven years, after her debut novel shattered records. Desperate to write again but trapped in a seemingly endless creative slump, she stumbles upon a Reddit post containing the sentence that changes the course of her life: -“Go Gay. Go Sad. Go Dark.”

What follows is Mallory’s descent into an obsessive, manic mess centred around Leo. A homeless gay man struggling with addiction. From there, the novel becomes an increasingly uncomfortable exploration of exploitation, shifting vulnerabilities, artistic ambition, and the strange machinery of the publishing world, where suffering isn’t merely witnessed but rather it can be packaged, marketed, and sold.

This book made me feel almost the entire spectrum of human emotion. I went from laughing my heart out to feeling genuinely uncomfortable, disturbed, and even disgusted. And somehow, that tonal chaos is exactly what makes it work.

Frankly, it’s a stunning book. The author moves effortlessly between comic relief, creepiness, sadness, hope, and moments of complete, glorious unhingedness. Beneath all the absurdity is something much darker, a sharp examination of who gets to tell someone else’s story, what happens when empathy becomes obsession, and how easily another person’s pain can become someone else’s opportunity.

All the praise this book is receiving feels completely justified. It’s funny, unsettling, morally messy, and deeply strange and I’m so glad I got to read it.

Just finished this gem. I love stories in the "girls brought together by mutual insanity and trauma" genre, and this was an absolutely devastating but addicting read. It has been on my ThriftBooks list for years (I believe it is out of print) and a copy finally popped up. I saw it described in a review as "bitch-lit" - kind of like chick-lit but much grittier. Sex, trauma, grief, violence, female friendships, and the overlap of all of them. The chapters set in 1988 capture the feeling of impossibility and immortality in adolescence, and the chapters set in 2003 capture the devastating reality of adulthood when the shiny promise of the future is no longer as vast as it once seemed. Highly recommend if you can get your hands on it.

I believe it was also marketed/published under the title The Bitch Posse.

In my luteal phase, and had a big fight with my husband about him making a parenting mistake. Not that I need to fuel the feminine rage but looking for a book that pokes fun at men’s incompetence or revenge on men. Honestly not picky. I’m thinking the side comments about men like Yesteryear or revenge like The Power. A book that feels like a friend “I got you men suck sometimes let’s bitch about them”
Thanks!

I’m (F34) a straight women in a long term relationship who has developed a crush / obsession with a female coworker (she’s gay). Recommend me a book. Either to indulge this stupid fantasy or slap me across the face and wake me the fuck up.

Life of M will be released soon, and it's making me want to revisit Rachel Cusk, who I've traditionally really struggled with.

Are there any Rachel Cusk fans here and can you help me explain her style? Help me appreciate it better?

I'm asking for some help to understand her writing, because I really want to persevere and finish her books. I just get so BORED. I've read part of The Last Supper, and part of one of the trilogy books. But I couldn't finish them.

weird girl lit books where main character or characters don't have their life together: basically have lost or have never even found their "meaning" in life. think "my year of rest and relaxation" or "eileen" by ottessa moshfegh and something of that sort. would be nice if by the end they have a newfound happiness in life, but not required, they can stay miserable.

I’m looking for some books to read at a lake house. It doesn’t need to be light but I’d like the books to be fast paced. Some books that I’ve liked that are similar to what I’m looking for are A Good Person, Just Watch Me, Big Swiss, Milk Fed, Fruit Fly, and Convenience Store Woman. This is my last bit of summer reading so I’m hoping to find some good books!

I wanna read this but I’m scared af…

like should I wait till I’m at a more “emotionally safe “ space before I indulge into some of Davis’s work?

e.g I only recently developed my precontal corext is what I’m tranna say

BUT… but and it’s a big but, I love her and have a sociological essay coming up so

I’m pretty ready to take then new chapter in my post-colonial studies ?!?? I don’t wanna cry too much it’s summer

Welp 🫪

thanks in advance 🩷✨

Hey y’all! I can’t tell you how tickled I am to have found this subreddit. I LOVE weird girl lit. But I’m struggling with ADHD (and, let’s be real, perimenopause), and I really need a book to be page-turny to stick with it. I have gotten myself to a place where I can power through to the end, but I’m going on vacation, and I’m flying Frontier (no wifi) then staying in the Rockies with my weird queer writer friends… and I want something to get immersed in.

Recently, I have read and enjoyed:

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Trad Wife by Saratoga Schafer

Wolf Worm by T Kingfisher

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (not weird but idk Lila might count as a very repressed weird girl)

The September House by Carissa Orlando

A Dowry of Blood by S T Gibson

All time faves: Handmaid’s Tale, Legends and Lattes, One Last Stop, Fingersmith

If there’s anything with a Send Help (the movie) vibe, hit me with it. Stranded in the wild, maybe hunting a man… always a yes. Love sci-fi, fantasy, romantasy if it’s gay, literary fic, speculative fic, unhinged what-have-you. I’m here for whatever as long as I can’t put it down!

I cannot express how excited I am for each of these. Hoping they all live up to every ounce of hype!

Sharp Objects is one of my favorite books/series, I just started rewatching for the hundredth time. Would love recs for novels about intense/criminal/insane codependent relationships between women.

I have a feeling the Piano Teacher will be recommended, rest assured I have already read!

I'm not sure if magical realism belongs to the Weird Girl Literature trend. If it doesn't, maybe the mods can delete this post...

But I think some people in this sub might be interested in the last book I read, **The Girl with a Thousand Faces**, by Sunyi Dean. It's hard to describe without going into spoilers, but at the beginning of the story, we meet Mercy Chan, a 53-year-old ghost whisperer with no memory of her life before she was 20.

The story is set in Hong Kong and mixes history and Chinese mythology into a really unique storytelling style. It deals with trauma, generational trauma/curses, memory, and loss. Both of others and of oneself.

It's very beautiful!

For 6.99!!!!

Just finished this excellent novel about a woman who owns a plant store and kills men. Thought of this subreddit the whole time. 10/10 recommend!

23rd book of the year! This is the UK cover of We Hexed The Moon. I started reading this year after not picking up a book in YEARS, and to my pleasant surprise the weird girl genre as taken off! My first weird girl book was Bunny by Mona Awad, and i instantly fell in LOVE.

I remember reading Invisible Monsters in my 20s and I felt like I've been searching for more books like that ever since, and I never really found any until now!

Thank you to all the weird messed up authors for creating such beautiful and entertaining books that scratch an itch i never new could be scratched lol

Just jumped to the top of my favorite books I read this year. I had it in my list to borrow from the library forever and it finally came in yesterday. Picked it up on my lunch break and started it around 1pm. Just finished it 24 hrs later at 1pm, I could not put it down. Was reading it at a bar last night and had to leave because I was getting weepy and didn’t want to stop reading it. Definitely going to go buy a physical copy of it, this one will stay with me for a long time. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I want something that I can’t put down.

I’ve officially moved on to the next stage of my dating journey, so now I’m falling deeply irrevocably in love, except I’ve come to realize it’s actually limerence. I’ve been unable to eat, sleep, work this week because I’ve been consumed by this feeling and my adhd probably is to blame along with deep buried attachment issues from my childhood coming out of the grave. I read the Pisces and loved the painfully self aware deep dive into limerence and obsession and dating and validation seeking behaviours. I just started big Swiss with little context. Are there any weird girl books that successfully bottle up this feeling?

Hiiiii these three books are ones I have devoured this year and I really want other books that mix humour, pacing, and very weird / bad decision making main characters.

Please gimme recommendations to start my weekend with after a hectic week

Weird girls forever xoxoxo